A new "interface terminology", dubbed RxTerms, is available for downloading and testing from the NLM.  The dataset is derived from RxNorm,

the US national terminology standard for clinical drugs. RxTerms provides drug name information intended for use with electronic prescribing

and medication histories as needed in Personal Health Records.

  Attributes of RxTerms include:

• It's free.
• Links to RxNorm which can provide the EMR with RxNorm clinical identifiers.
• Intelligent data entry - designed to avoid big picklists with excessively long names.
• Has commonly used synonyms and abbreviations (e.g. HCTZ for hydrochlorothiazide) .
  
• There is "tall man" lettering (e.g. ChlorproMAZINE and ChlorproPAMIDE).
• Claims 99% coverage of both generic and brand names for most commonly prescribed U.S. drugs.
  
• It excludes drugs from RxNorm that are obsolete or unavailable in the U.S.

The current dataset has over 29,000 entries. Below is a snapshot of a couple of representative entries.

This view is from a quick report created in MS Access.

If you use Firefox, you can try a demo on the NLM site here.

For starters, definitions from Wikipedia:

Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of medication. The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications, and it also includes more modern services related to patient care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists, therefore, are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize medication use to provide patients with positive health outcomes. The term is also applied to an establishment used for such purposes.

Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information. It also develops its own conceptual and theoretical foundations and utilizes foundations developed in other fields. Since the advent of computers, individuals and organizations increasingly process information digitally. This has led to the study of informatics that has computational, cognitive and social aspects, including study of the social impact of information technologies.

Pharmacy informatics is the application of computers to the storage, retrieval and analysis of drug and prescription information. Pharmacy informaticists work with pharmacy information management systems that help the pharmacist make excellent decisions about patient drug therapies with respect to, medical insurance records, drug interactions, as well as prescription and patient information.

Pharmacy informatics is the study of interactions between people, their work processes and engineered systems within health care with a focus on pharmaceutical care and improved patient safety.The Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) defines pharmacy informatics as, "the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems - including its acquisition, storage, analysis, use and dissemination - in the delivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes"

My other favorite topic: what music to listen to while snowboarding, probably belongs on a different site, but I may bring it up on a winter powder day.